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juniperss · 6 months

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“Days Between”

Jinny {OC} x Eugene Sledge

Author’s note: uh yeah this wasn’t supposed to turn into a story but here we are…..I’m so normal about the childhood best friends to lovers trope with Eugene. I had this song on repeat the entire time I was writing

Tagging: @rosies-riveters (pls lemme know if you don’t wanna be tagged that’s totally fine LOL)

Content warnings: none

Word count: 1,580

“You’ll write when you have the time?” Jinny asked, turning her head to the side to peer at Eugene. He was propped up on his elbows and twirling a strand of golden grass between his fingers, the sunlight shining against his face giving him an almost ethereal quality.

Feeling her eyes on him, Eugene met her gaze and offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “ ‘Course I will. It’ll be like I never left.”

But of course that wasn’t true and they both knew it. Besides Sid Philips, Jinny was Eugene Sledge’s closest friend and he was her’s. The absence would be felt strongly and bitterly. It was bad enough that Sidney had already gone and the trio had been cut down to two, but now Eugene was going to leave too and Jinny wasn’t sure what her life looked like without him.

The grass around them gave them the illusion of shelter from the reality that in just a few days he would be gone for bootcamp and then to war. The fields and woods were their safe place; their childhood playground and teenage hideaways when the responsibilities of everyday life got to be too much. If one of them wasn’t at home it was likely that they could be found here.

“I’ll miss you.” Eugene spoke to the sky, but the words were meant for her.

Jinny looked up too, catching sight of a flock of birds taking off. There was so much she wanted to say to him: that she didn’t want him to leave, that she loved him more than a friend should love another and that she had for so long but the words were stuck in her throat and sat there choking her. It would be selfish for her to tell him those things, she chided herself. Telling him not to go when she knew how long he had dreamed of fighting was selfish. And telling him she loved him and risking ruining a friendship before he went to war? So instead she put all of the meaning and desires that made them up and put them into another phrase:

“I’ll miss you too.”

—

He was a liar.

Jinny knew the thought were harsh, unfair, and frankly untrue as soon as they flashed in her mind. She quickly banished it, sending up a “I’m sorry” to the heavens, and retrieved the box of bandages from the top shelf of the supply closet she was currently standing in.

Eugene had written, just like he said he would and as often as he could, and with each letter was the confirmation that he was alive. A sweet balm of relief however temporary. The real reason for the stinging pain in her chest was that no amount of letters would truly make up for him not being home. Because she did miss him and she felt it so acutely every moment. She had carefully folded each letter and tucked them into her nightstand to read again and again when her mind refused to stop worrying. And after she had read and reread them, she penned her own letters to him.

Recounting the mundane aspects of her life had seemed pointless and almost ridiculous when s he first put pen to paper. But the more she wrote and as her life shifted with her job at the hospital and rehabilitation center, the easier it came in sharing everything with Eugene. She hoped the stories about her visits to his parent’s home for dinner, her talks with soldiers during rounds, her ramblings about Sidney’s latest schemes now that he was home, her thoughts about everything and anything might lend the same sense of comfort his letters brought to her.

Even now as she set to work organizing the boxes meant to be shipped overseas she began drafting a letter to him, one that she knew she would never send.

“Dear Eugene, I love you. I can’t wait to take our walks together again and talk. I don’t even care about what we say. I just miss hearing your voice. When you’re home, I’ll tell you that in person, as much as you can bear to hear me say it. Just come home safe, that’s all I want more than anything now or ever. Yours always, Jinny.”

—

The grass tickled her calves as it moved in the breeze that was sending the trees into a frenzy. It wasn’t as warm as it had been earlier in the day and Jinny was thankful for the reprieve from the constant sweating under its rays. Her eyes closed and arms crossed against her chest she let her mind drift away from the day just like she had when she was younger. Even though Sidney’s return wasn’t enough to erase the ever present stain of Eugene’s absence, having him home was a blessing and made walking their childhood route less bitter. Jinny had missed his constant talking and easy to come by smiles and she found some solace in busying herself with asking details about his upcoming wedding.

But today she was making the walk by herself since Sidney was busy and just for a few moments with her eyes closed she could almost feel the peace that had been gone since the war began. How much she had changed shocked her when she truly sat down to think about it. She had been so concerned about others and focused on their wellbeing that her own growth and maturity had come as a surprise. She was tougher now in so many ways but a heaviness came with it and sat on her shoulders even as she left work behind for the day. There was still much of herself that she was figuring out. Yet in moments like this, in the silence and the familiarity and in the missing of her friend, she knew that there were still pieces of her old self there that hadn’t changed.

“Hey, Jinny.”

The air left her lungs like she'd suffered a kick to the chest, mind not quite comprehending who that voice belonged to and how he was there and how it had most definitely come from behind her. She turned slowly as if he was Eurydice and she was Orpheus and looking back would send Eugene’s soul back to the underworld.

Because it was Eugene and he was standing right there with his arms at his sides looking so smart in his uniform. She stared, soaking in all of him, searching for signs of how much he changed in the time he had been away. He was skinnier and he looked tired, and there was that bone deep exhaustion that she saw in the face of every soldier she met at the hospital. But she could still see the laugh lines around his eyes and the sun touching his ginger hair making it glow, and she knew that this was her friend even with all that he brought back with him.

And then she was moving and throwing her arms around him and pulling him into her body. There was the possibility that she was hugging him too tightly but she couldn’t quite bring herself to care as all the fears dissipated with him against her. He was solid and warm and his arms were around her waist now holding just as tightly as she was to him. She could feel cheek against her head and his breathing on her ear, and she wondered if he could feel her tears falling on him.

“Sorry I didn’t write the last few weeks. I was going to write you one last letter, but I figured I could say it all to you once we were face to face.”

Eugene’s voice was muffled but she could still hear him. There was a half hearted laugh against his shoulder and finally, after another few moments of holding onto each other, Jinny allowed herself to step back. Her hands were still clasping his arms as if he would vanish without her there to anchor. He was smiling now and so was she, reaching up to touch his cheek. “I guess I can let it slide this time.”

His hand covered hers to hold it there. It was calloused and strong, so different from the hands she remembered before. She was surprised to see him looking at her with the same curiosity and searching that mirrored her own. He was trying to see the parts of her that had changed and fill in all the pieces of what her letters did not tell him about what he had missed of her life. Eugene swallowed hard and shook his head, still smiling.

“I love you Jinny Collins.”

There were seldom moments in her life that she remembered being too stunned to say something. But standing here with Eugene in her arms Jinny found her mind reeling with his declaration. How many times had Jinny thought those same words? Even before he had left, she had dreamt of saying them to him. How many times had she thrown away a draft of a letter that had those three words written carefully at the end? She had loved him for so long. And he loved her? She cupped his cheek in her hand and stared up at him with teary eyes and uttered the phrase that she wished she had said the last day they were together in the field of grass:

“I love you too.”

#oc: virginia ‘jinny’ collins #jinny x eugene #the pacific #the pacific oc #hbo war #hbo war x reader #my writings #my writing #🏷️ my writings #🏷️ my ocs

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